In a recent blog entry, Darin Allen showed one way to quickly look up a word in various lexicons in Accordance. The article included a helpful video describing how to set up the program and follow the process.
Yesterday, Mark Barnes uploaded a video in which he reproduced the same steps using Logos 5. He then went on offering yet more options, including his preferred method: the Power Lookup feature.
I’d like to add to this interesting comparison by showing you in the following video how to look up a Greek word in multiple lexicons using the Search All feature in Accordance 10. In Accordance, too, there is more than one way to do it (TIMTOWTDI).
A while back I showed how to search for the root of a Greek word in Accordance. This is something that couldn’t be done in Logos 4 unless one was willing to follow a rather convoluted and error-prone workaround, as Mark Hoffman pointed out in a follow-up post where he compared the ability to search for Greek roots in Accordance, BibleWorks and Logos. Today I want to revisit this question, since Logos 5 includes the ability to search for the root of a word right from the contextual menu. The following video explains how it all works.
Note also that, as Rick Brannan rightly points out in the comments, the Bible Word Study guide in Logos 5 now includes a Root section. This means that you can right-click on a word and choose to run this very helpful automated tool and it will display all the roots for you.
First things first. I love the new Clause Search feature in Logos 5. Personally, this is my favorite feature, and a prime example of the potential of Reverse Interlinears and semantic-based databases, two of the key areas that Logos has been focusing on in recent years.
I was asked to post a review on just one condition: to be honest. I think I can do that; I’m used to doing it 🙂
Since there is so much to talk about, and it is quite easy to miss things when you set out to summarize what’s new in a major upgrade like this, I’ve decided to do an experiment and record a video for each of the new or enhanced features that I like the most. My goal is to show you how they work and, in some cases, suggest ideas of what I’d like to see added or improved. This is meant to be a conversation, so feel free to comment, link to a video response or whatever. Interaction is always the best way to learn. You’ll notice that this is an unscripted video, and I want it to be that way in order to capture that conversational approach.
I have always found Syntax Searches in Logos hard to understand, and even harder to build. Perhaps that is the reason why I am so pleased with the new Clause searches. It may well be the case that some of my suggestions/requests can be achieved via syntax queries, but I believe they belong here, and that with clause searching we are just beginning to scratch the surface of some amazing new ways to search the Scriptures. This is exciting stuff!
So here is the video (just under 12 minutes long). I hope it is worth your time!
EDIT(November 5, 2012): Rosie Perera has been kind enough to bring to my attention (see comments below) that even if you don’t specify the subject or the verb-lemma in the Clause Search, the information will be shown in the Analysis view and can be easily sorted out, as you can see in the screenshots below.
Logos Bible Software has just launched version 5 of their Bible software program. It includes some great new features and seven new base packages, from Starter to Portfolio, but above all, it is what version 4 should have been all along.
From a philosophical/theoretical point of view, I would describe Logos 5 as the Semantic Web applied to Bible software (in this sense it is not difficult to see Sean Boisen‘s hand behind it). In other words, the program tries to find meaning in context and establish connections with the vast amount of resources available both in Logos itself and online. What this means in real life is that Logos 5 focuses on the use of pretty sophisticated tools (most of them automated), connecting the information and opening up avenues for further study, and fostering a network of Christian links among its users.
It is quite clear to any outside observer that Logos is out to build a whole ecosystem, but the key is to greatly improve/enhance its flagship product. Logos 5 hopes to be not just a step forward, but more of a significant leap ahead. Does it deliver on its promises? Let’s try to find out.
